Appendix:Finnish pronunciation

This page details the pronunciation of Standard Finnish (Standard Spoken Finnish, yleispuhekieli), which is, unless otherwise specified, the spoken variety used to document Finnish pronunciations on the English Wiktionary. It is the standard prestige variety used in e.g. formal discussions, newscasts and official speeches, and is the primary variety taught in schools.

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Finnish phonology

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Key

Legend:

IPA: The phoneme expressed in the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). If the symbol is a link, it points to the relevant Wikipedia article.
Examples: A Finnish word containing the phoneme, both as short (ungeminated for consonants) and long (geminated for consonants), as available. Each word is accompanied by an audio clip.
English approximation: A rough approximation of the sound in an English word. This is only a rough approximation and should not be taken as an accurate representation of the sound.
Explanation: An explanation of the sound.
Notes: Additional notes in the form of footnotes.

Consonants
IPA	Examples		English approximation	Notes
IPA	Ungeminated "short"	Geminated "long"	English approximation	Notes
d	voida ^ⓘ	—	do	^{[* 1]}
h	hyvä ^ⓘ	—	ham	^{[* 2]}
j	joki ^ⓘ	—	yellow	^{[* 3]}
k	koira ^ⓘ	tukka ^ⓘ	sky	^{[* 4]}
l	lumi ^ⓘ	tulla ^ⓘ	lake	^{[* 5]}
m	muu ^ⓘ	kumma ^ⓘ	much
n	nuori ^ⓘ	mennä ^ⓘ	no
ŋ	sänki ^ⓘ	rengas ^ⓘ	king	^{[* 6]}
p	poika ^ⓘ	seppä ^ⓘ	speak	^{[* 4]}
r	ranne ^ⓘ	purra ^ⓘ	run (Scottish English)	^{[* 7]}
s	silmä ^ⓘ	kissa ^ⓘ	see, she, zee	^{[* 8]}
t	talvi ^ⓘ	katto ^ⓘ	stay	^{[* 4]}
ʋ	vesi ^ⓘ	—	view (Indian English)	^{[* 9]}
Non-native consonants
b	baari ^ⓘ	lobbari ^ⓘ	bite	^{[* 10]}
d	disko ^ⓘ	additio ^ⓘ	do	^{[* 10]}
f	fiksu ^ⓘ	leffa ^ⓘ	Finnish	^{[* 11]}
ɡ	geeli ^ⓘ	bloggari ^ⓘ	get	^{[* 10]}
ʃ	šakki ^ⓘ	pašša ^ⓘ	shoe	^{[* 12]}
Suprasegmentals
IPA	Example	Explanation		Notes
ː	viisi ^ⓘ tukka ^ⓘ	long vowel or geminated consonant		^{[* 13]}
.	liu’uttaa ^ⓘ	syllable boundary		^{[* 14]}
ˈ	sana ^ⓘ	primary stress		^{[* 15]}
ˌ	yhdyssana ^ⓘ	secondary stress		^{[* 16]}
Other
ˣ	sade‸ ^ⓘ jonne‸kin ^ⓘ	final gemination
(…)		optional

Vowels
IPA	Examples		English approximation	Notes
IPA	Short	Long	English approximation	Notes
ɑ	askel ^ⓘ	saada ^ⓘ	father	^{[* 17]}
e	että ^ⓘ	tekee ^ⓘ	error	^{[* 18]}
i	ilma ^ⓘ	viisi ^ⓘ	beat
o	oksa ^ⓘ	kutoo ^ⓘ	bore	^{[* 19]}
u	sulka ^ⓘ	uusi ^ⓘ	boot
y	sydän ^ⓘ	tyyni ^ⓘ	few
æ	käsi ^ⓘ	ääni ^ⓘ	cat
ø	näkö ^ⓘ	säilöö ^ⓘ	bird (some varieties)	^{[* 20]}
Diphthongs (closing)^{[* 21]}
IPA	Examples		Rough English approximation	Notes
ɑi̯	maito ^ⓘ		car ease (non-rhotic accent)
ei̯	seistä ^ⓘ		fair ease (non-rhotic accent)
oi̯	koivu ^ⓘ		door ease (non-rhotic accent)
ui̯	kuiva ^ⓘ		who ease
yi̯	lyijy ^ⓘ		few eat
æi̯	päivä ^ⓘ		baa ease (General American)
øi̯	öinen ^ⓘ		bird easy (some varieties)
ɑu̯	kausi ^ⓘ		car Uber (non-rhotic accent)
eu̯	neuvo ^ⓘ		werewolf (Southern England)
iu̯	hius ^ⓘ		wee woo
ou̯	lounas ^ⓘ		bore Uber (non-rhotic accent)
ey̯	leyhyä ^ⓘ		—	^{[* 22]}
iy̯	kääriytyä ^ⓘ		—	^{[* 23]}
æy̯	täysi ^ⓘ		—
øy̯	löyly ^ⓘ		—
Diphthongs (opening)^{[* 24]}
ie̯	kieli ^ⓘ		be ending
uo̯	Suomi ^ⓘ		who ordered
yø̯	pyörä ^ⓘ		few Americans

Notes

^ 'Native' /d/ is only found root-medially as a weak grade of /t/ under consonant gradation. More specifically, the phoneme can only appear between two vowels, either on its own or as part of /hd/. The realization of this phoneme varies by dialect and speaker.
^ Only ungeminated, except for one word: hihhuli. Exact realization varies slightly depending on the environment.
^ Only ungeminated.
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 Finnish plosives are always unaspirated.
^ Clear /l/, similar to Spanish, French and German, but unlike the dark /l/ of American English.
^ In native words always word-medial, and only in ⟨nk⟩ /ŋk/ (before ⟨k⟩ as a short consonant) or ⟨ng⟩ /ŋː/ (long, weak grade of ⟨nk⟩). In foreign borrowings the phoneme may also occur before another consonant (in which environment it is always ungeminated) or word-finally.
^ Realized as a trill [r] ("rolled R"), like in Spanish ⟨rr⟩, Italian and many Slavic languages. When ungeminated and intervocalic, it may also be a tap [ɾ], especially in faster speech.
^ Exhibits considerable variation depending on speaker and context. Usually somewhat retracted, [s̠] (voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant), but may be realized as a voiced [z] between vowels in fast speech, or (by some speakers) as [ʃ] after rounded vowels.
^ Only ungeminated. Realized as an approximant, not a fricative; roughly something between an English ⟨v⟩ and ⟨w⟩.
↑ ^10.0 ^10.1 ^10.2 The foreign voiced plosives are pronounced as such in Standard Spoken Finnish, at least by educated speakers. Pronouncing them as unvoiced is common among monolingual Finnish speakers (e.g. outside major cities), but is considered rustic or folksy by some.
^ Realized as [f] in Standard Finnish. In idiolects without [f], it is usually realized as /ʋ/ when ungeminated and /hʋ/ when geminated.
^ Not reliably distinguished from /s/ by all speakers for most words (when ambiguity is not a risk).
^ Follows the vowel or consonant it modifies.
^ Usually marked between vowels with an apostrophe, especially when representing the weak grade of ⟨k⟩.
^ Falls on the first syllable.
^ Falls on the first syllable of later words as part of a compound.
^ A back vowel. The Finnish /ɑ/ is not necessarily quite a cardinal [ɑ]. Depending on the description, it might be near-open [ɑ̝] or central or near-back [ɑ̈]. It is also possible that the exact realization varies somewhat.
^ Mid vowel (mid front unrounded vowel), between [e] and [ɛ].
^ Mid vowel (mid back rounded vowel), between [o] and [ɔ].
^ Mid vowel (mid front rounded vowel), between [ø] and [œ].
^ Diphthongs ending in ⟨i⟩ can be present in any syllable. Diphthongs ending in ⟨u⟩ or ⟨y⟩ are in standard Finnish only present in root-initial or open syllables, while later closed syllables have a hiatus.
^ Rare in initial syllables.
^ Very rare in initial syllables and fairly uncommon in general.
^ Opening diphthongs are only present in root-initial syllables.

Table

Consonant phonemes
	Labial	Dental Alveolar	Palatal Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Plosive	p (b)	t d		k (ɡ)
Fricative	(f)	s	(ʃ)		h
Approximant	ʋ		j
Rhotic		r
Lateral		l

Monophthongs
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i æ e ɑ u o ø y
Near-close
Close-mid
Mid
Open-mid
Near-open
Open

Diphthongs
		Closing			Opening
		_i	_u	_y	_e	_o	_ø
Back	ɑ_	ɑi̯	ɑu̯
	o_	oi̯	ou̯
	u_	ui̯				uo̯
Front	æ_	æi̯		æy̯
	ø_	øi̯		øy̯
	y_	yi̯					yø̯
Neutral	e_	ei̯	eu̯	ey̯
Neutral	i_		iu̯	iy̯	ie̯

Consonants

All consonants except /j/ and /ʋ/ may appear geminated. Geminated /h/ is however very rare.

Plosives

Standard Finnish native plosives are unvoiced and unaspirated: /k/, /p/, /t/.

An additional 'native' /d/ can be found as the weak grade of /t/ (under consonant gradation), and thus only occurs between vowels, either independently or as part of /hd/ (thus, native /d/ is never geminated). This originates as a spelling pronunciation by Swedish speakers learning Finnish during the 19th century, as it was spelled ⟨d⟩ (earlier also ⟨dh⟩) in an attempt to represent /ð/, its pronunciation in the Southwest Finnish literary standard at the time. In other dialects, it may be realized as [r], [l], or lost, only leaving behind e.g. a glide. Even in Standard Finnish, the consonant may in rapid speech become an alveolar tap.

Recent borrowings can also contain the phonemes /b/, /d/ and /ɡ/, which are pronounced as voiced plosives, although in monolingual Finnish speech they may only be partially voiced, if at all. However, minimal pairs do exist.

For (potential) glottal stops, see final gemination below.

Fricatives

Native words only have two fricatives: /s/ and /h/. The pronunciation of /s/ is highly variable. It is often devoiced and somewhat retracted, but may be voiced between two vowels in fast speech, and may even become a /ʃ/ "sh-sound" after rounded vowels.

Two more fricatives can be found in loanwords: /f/ and /ʃ/ ⟨š⟩. The latter is often pronounced as if it were /s/ if there is no risk of confusion.

Finnish ⟨v⟩ is not a fricative.

Rhotic

The single Finnish rhotic /r/ is a rolled R, but if ungeminated, may be realized as a tap between two vowels in rapid speech.

Lateral

Finnish /l/ is always a bright L, never a dark (velarized) L.

Nasals

Finnish has three nasals: /m/, /n/ and /ŋ/. While the first two are common and can appear in any position, /ŋ/ in native words is only found either as part of /ŋk/ ⟨nk⟩ or /ŋː/ ⟨ng⟩ between two vowels. In loanwords, it may appear as a short /ŋ/ even before other consonants or at the end of a word.

Approximants

/j/ and /ʋ/ are approximants in Finnish. The latter is spelled ⟨v⟩, but is not a fricative.

Vowels

All vowels may appear short or long, and there is very little if any difference in quality between the short and long variants of the same vowel.

⟨a⟩ is /ɑ/, a decidedly back vowel. ⟨y⟩, ⟨ä⟩ and ⟨ö⟩ are /y/, /æ/ and /ø/ respectively, all front vowels. Finnish /e/, /o/ and /ø/ are mid vowels.

Standard Finnish has 18 diphthongs, which are listed in the tables above.

Other features

Final gemination

See also: Finnish phonology § Sandhi on Wikipedia

Some Finnish words or word roots feature final gemination (also called boundary gemination or boundary lengthening, Finnish: rajakahdennus), which is usually marked with /ˣ/ (Finnish: jäännöslopuke; see also the entry for this symbol). This feature (argued to be morphophonetic) originates from the loss of some final consonants (primarily ⟨-k⟩ or ⟨-h⟩) always follows a vowel, and its realization depends on what follows it:

If /ˣ/ is followed by a consonant, the consonant becomes geminated if it isn't already.
If /ˣ/ is followed by a vowel or the end of the utterance, it may simply be silent, or manifest as a glottal stop [ʔ], which may or may not be geminated, and may even be completely omitted in rapid speech.

This feature is not indicated in the Finnish orthography, but results in minimal pairs (albeit marginal). Final gemination usually also affects clitics, which means it can in some cases even surface within a word, such as jonnekin /ˈjonːeˣkin/ → /ˈjonːekːin/ (respelled ⟨jonnekkin⟩). Possessive suffixes are however not affected. There are also some cases in which final gemination has in effect become grammaticalized, such as the partitive singular of hame → hametta, in which the geminated consonant is spelled with gemination.

For some speakers, final gemination may be missing within words, such as within compounds or before clitics; this is more common in rapid speech.

In standard Finnish, final gemination occurs primarily in the following cases:

nominals:
- (the nominative singular forms of) nominals belonging to type 48 ("hame")
- allative (-lle) singular and plural forms of nominals
verbs:
- first infinitive forms (dictionary forms)^{[† 1]}
  note that the third-person singular present indicative does not have final gemination even if it is a homograph (i.e. spelled identically)
- connegative forms of verbs (except for conditional)
- second-person singular imperative forms of verbs (identical with the indicative connegative), except that of the negative verb
adverbs:
- the 'adverbial cases' prolative (-itse) and sublative (-nne)
- adverbs derived with the suffix -sti, as well as the allative suffix -lle
- certain individual adverbs and adpositions
the third-person possessive suffix -nsa

The following features may or may not have final gemination depending on the idiolect (speaker and variety):

nominals:
- comitative forms of adjectives (i.e. when not followed by a possessive suffix)
verbs:
- past passive participles (-ttu)
- conditional connegative
- second-person singular imperative forms of the negative verb, i.e. älä
adverbs:
- adverbs derived with the suffixes -lti and -ti
the numeral kolme (“three”)
the pronoun itse (“self”)

Furthermore, in some dialects, final gemination is completely absent.

Suprasegmentals

Stress

Stress occurs on the first syllable of any given word. In compounds, secondary stress occurs at the beginning of each component word, which may result in stress falling on consecutive syllables if a component is only a single syllable. Certain other words have phonemic secondary stress as well.

Rhythmic secondary stress, generally taken as weaker than the phonemic secondary stress found in compound words (or some other words), as described above, has been interpreted in different ways. Such stress is not strictly phonemic and can depend on the speaker and context. Songs and poems, in particular, may take significant liberties.

According to the traditional explanation, rhythmic stress also occurs roughly on odd syllables and is assigned left-to-right, with the leftmost syllable in a prosodic foot being stressed, but may skip up to two light syllables if a heavy syllable follows (e.g. ⟨omenanamme⟩ → o.me.na.nam.me). Some suffixes may also incur secondary stress automatically, in which case they may 'steal' it from an immediately preceding syllable. Syllables containing (the start of) certain inflectional suffixes, including possessive suffixes, may also avoid secondary stress, by e.g. shifting it to the preceding syllable, even if it is a light syllable.

An alternative explanation, offered by Karvonen (2005; see Further reading), instead posits that rhythmic stress is predominantly assigned right-to-left, which results in different stresses for words with more than four syllables (e.g. kolesteroli in the traditional explanation is ko.les.te.ro.li, but when assigned right to left, is instead ko.les.te.ro.li). In addition, vowel hiatuses are avoided when assigning stresses (televisio is te.le.vi.si.o, not xte.le.vi.si.o), and syllables may instead stress shift back by one if that syllable has higher priority (is heavy, or contains a long vowel/diphthong).

Final syllables (in words more than one) are usually not stressed, but if the final syllable is heavy (ends in a consonant or contains a long vowel or diphthong) and the preceding syllable is light (ends in a short vowel) and unstressed, the final syllable may receive stress (e.g. taistelevan becomes tais.te.le.van instead of tais.te.le.van). As can be seen in the example, this may and will cause stress in earlier syllables to shift forwards.

Sandhi

Finnish is rich in sandhi phenomena. Besides the final gemination listed above, there are instances of assimilation: /nk/ is generally realized as if it were [ŋk] and /np/ as [mp].

Footnotes

^ Some Helsinki slang first infinitive forms are an exception.

[1] 'Native' /d/ is only found root-medially as a weak grade of /t/ under consonant gradation. More specifically, the phoneme can only appear between two vowels, either on its own or as part of /hd/. The realization of this phoneme varies by dialect and speaker.

[2] Only ungeminated, except for one word: hihhuli. Exact realization varies slightly depending on the environment.

[3] Only ungeminated.

[unasp-4] 4.0 ^4.1 ^4.2 Finnish plosives are always unaspirated.

[5] Clear /l/, similar to Spanish, French and German, but unlike the dark /l/ of American English.

[6] In native words always word-medial, and only in ⟨nk⟩ /ŋk/ (before ⟨k⟩ as a short consonant) or ⟨ng⟩ /ŋː/ (long, weak grade of ⟨nk⟩). In foreign borrowings the phoneme may also occur before another consonant (in which environment it is always ungeminated) or word-finally.

[7] Realized as a trill [r] ("rolled R"), like in Spanish ⟨rr⟩, Italian and many Slavic languages. When ungeminated and intervocalic, it may also be a tap [ɾ], especially in faster speech.

[8] Exhibits considerable variation depending on speaker and context. Usually somewhat retracted, [s̠] (voiceless alveolar retracted sibilant), but may be realized as a voiced [z] between vowels in fast speech, or (by some speakers) as [ʃ] after rounded vowels.

[9] Only ungeminated. Realized as an approximant, not a fricative; roughly something between an English ⟨v⟩ and ⟨w⟩.

[voiced-10] 10.0 ^10.1 ^10.2 The foreign voiced plosives are pronounced as such in Standard Spoken Finnish, at least by educated speakers. Pronouncing them as unvoiced is common among monolingual Finnish speakers (e.g. outside major cities), but is considered rustic or folksy by some.

[11] Realized as [f] in Standard Finnish. In idiolects without [f], it is usually realized as /ʋ/ when ungeminated and /hʋ/ when geminated.

[12] Not reliably distinguished from /s/ by all speakers for most words (when ambiguity is not a risk).

[13] Follows the vowel or consonant it modifies.

[14] Usually marked between vowels with an apostrophe, especially when representing the weak grade of ⟨k⟩.

[15] Falls on the first syllable.

[16] Falls on the first syllable of later words as part of a compound.

[17] A back vowel. The Finnish /ɑ/ is not necessarily quite a cardinal [ɑ]. Depending on the description, it might be near-open [ɑ̝] or central or near-back [ɑ̈]. It is also possible that the exact realization varies somewhat.

[18] Mid vowel (mid front unrounded vowel), between [e] and [ɛ].

[19] Mid vowel (mid back rounded vowel), between [o] and [ɔ].

[20] Mid vowel (mid front rounded vowel), between [ø] and [œ].

[21] Diphthongs ending in ⟨i⟩ can be present in any syllable. Diphthongs ending in ⟨u⟩ or ⟨y⟩ are in standard Finnish only present in root-initial or open syllables, while later closed syllables have a hiatus.

[22] Rare in initial syllables.

[23] Very rare in initial syllables and fairly uncommon in general.

[24] Opening diphthongs are only present in root-initial syllables.

[25] Some Helsinki slang first infinitive forms are an exception.

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[† 1]